Top tips for retail signage

If you’re in the retail business, you probably already appreciate the importance of good signage in capturing customers’ attention and drawing it to particular merchandise or offers, and of clearly labelling goods and prices.

Here are some top tips for making the most of signs in your retail premises:

• Be brief

People are probably in a rush in your store – so understand that. With everything from Vine and YouTube videos to Tweets shrinking, and attention spans decreasing rapidly, there’s no time for densely worded signage.

• Choose easily readable fonts

You might get away with crayon lettering on a chalk board, but it probably won’t bring you any sales. Choose clear fonts without multiple different colours and curly-cues. Remember, attention must be drawn towards your product and your message. People will soon move on if they can’t read your sign in seconds. While it may sound obvious, if the lettering is too small, no-one will be able to read it.

• Give customers a reason to buy

Why should the customer choose your product or service rather than one offered by the competition?

• Use ‘you’ and ‘yours’

When people can visualise making use of what you are selling, they will buy. It’s interesting just how powerful the words “you” and “yours” can be in the wording on signs.

• Less is still more

One recent newspaper article suggested that people were writing shorter and shorter text messages – with many limiting themselves to just a couple of words, letters or even a mere single emoticon. So, once again, we can’t stress the importance of succinct, short messages strongly enough. Edit brutally until excess words and fluff are no longer there, leaving just your message. There are even times when we take instruction from a mere symbol when driving for example, or obeying a no smoking sign. Less is definitely more.

• Road testing

Your sign on the top of your window display could be just right – or is it? Especially if you are based on a busy road, get a friend to drive past and let you know if the sign is clearly visible. If it’s not, go back to the drawing board for some serious editing.

Finally, have fun! If you know anything about the history of signs and signage, you’ll know that no-one ever notices a boring sign.